Boardwalk, boats take most of damage in Point Pleasant Beach

Oct. 31, 2012

Route 88 flooding between Point Pleasant and Brick due to Hurricane Sandy. Staff photo by Shannon Mullen. 10/30/12

The Point Pleasant Beach boardwalk was destroyed from the inlet to the Risden's beach. / Photos by Michelle Gladden/Staff photo

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POINT PLEASANT BEACH — As curious residents here walked around the small borough assessing the storm damage Tuesday, one thing was clear: there would be a lot of work ahead.

Boats piled up along Broadway, the roadway usually used to get to the popular boardwalk area, and the boardwalk itself was destroyed from the inlet down to the historic Risden’s beach.

“We need to get people to stay home,” Mayor Vincent Barella said of on-lookers beginning to populate the streets. “We need to let the professionals do their job.”

In the borough’s east side where mandatory evacuations were put in place, almost every street not buried in 6-foot flood waters was covered with a thick layer of sand. Downed trees rested on homes or blocked roadway access and wind-blown brush, garbage, and pieces of lawn furniture lined the fence behind G. Harold Antrim Elementary School.

Homes along the Lake Louise region were buried in flood waters, including Mayor Vincent Barrella’s home.

“I felt like I was on the Titanic,” Barella said.

Other east side residents like John and Ruth Boyle stayed through the worst of it.

“I slept in a hallway because our bedroom faces the water and has lots of windows,” said Boyle as she and husband, John, worked to air out their water drenched garage.

Bob Dixon, 51, who lives in a bungalow along the boardwalk said, “It got real crazy, real fast.” Dixon’s own Water Street home lost half its foundation by morning.